****1 timothy 6:6-10

The Secret of Contentment,

1 Timothy 6:6–10 (NRSV)

6 Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; 8 but if we have food and clothing’/, we will be content with these. 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

How Much Is Enough?

MATERIALISM

1 Timothy 6:6–10

(POSB: Note 1)

A popular American expression speaks of “keeping up with the Joneses,” that is, having as many material possessions as your neighbors. In the race to see who can outdo whom, contentment is becoming extinct even in the lives of many Christians. See if you can find yourself in this amusing story.

As a new family was moving in across the street, an observant neighbor was struck by the amount of things one family could accumulate. The stream of boxes unloaded from the moving van was seemingly endless. Their four cars were parked on the lawn out of the way. The new family lived by the popular adage, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he counted at least five television sets unloaded and taken into the house. “Maybe they have a few spare ones in case one breaks,” he thought to himself.

Despite all the commotion, the man decided to go and greet his new neighbor. “Hi there! Good to meet you.” While pointing to the moving van, he remarked, “Do you think all of your stuff is going to fit into the house?” With a sense of pride, the new neighbor responded, “I doubt it. I’ve just got too much. If you ever need to borrow anything, let me know—I’m sure to have it.”

Thinking to himself he could use some of the items, the old neighbor responded pointedly, “If you need help getting rid of some things, I’ll be glad to take them off your hands.”

Both of these men, in their own way, were focusing on the material. But material things cannot give anyone contentment—not permanently, not perfectly. It is through God and God alone that man finds a contentment that leaves him wanting for nothing.

Deadly Greed

MONEY

1 Timothy 6:6–10

(POSB: Note 2)

If someone offered you a sack of gold, would you take it? Before you answer too quickly, listen to this story and then give your answer.

“The voyage home to Spain has been a long time coming, but after a very successful gold strike in the New World, it is time to cash in on our good fortune,” thought Carlos, the ship’s captain, as he relaxed on the deck of his ship. Sitting there, Carlos imagined what he would do with his share of the treasure. But then off in the distance he saw dark clouds rising over the horizon.

Carlos and his crew had made the trans-Atlantic trip several times and were considered to be sea-worthy sailors. But this time, they sailed into the storm of the century. They had never seen waves like the ones that rocked their ship back and forth. As the water flooded the hold, Carlos gave the order to throw everything of significant weight overboard.

With hearts heavier than their gold fortune, they began to throw bags of gold overboard. It was to no avail. The ship continued to sink. The captain ordered the men to lower lifeboats and to abandon the ship. During all of the confusion, one of the sailors took a bag of gold and stuffed it in his shirt. “Those poor suckers. They’ve lost everything,” he thought to himself.

Yet as he stepped into the lifeboat, he was thrown off balance and fell into the angry sea. “Swim to us!” shouted his shipmates. But the weight of the gold pulled the man under, never to be seen again. The sailor’s greed formed his grave, one that showed no respect for the material possessions.

Is the love of the world dragging you down? Let it go. Let the Savior rescue you before it is too late.

(6:6–10) Introduction: every person strives for contentment. Contentment is the one thing we all want. We want to be fulfilled, complete, satisfied, completely self-sufficient. But when we look around, this is not what we see. What we see is a society and a world discontented, about as unfulfilled, incomplete, dissatisfied, empty, lonely, and restless as they can be. Why? Why are so many people discontented? Why are few people truly contented? This is the importance of this passage: the secret of contentment.

1. The secret to contentment is godliness (vv. 6–8).

2. The secret to contentment is not money (vv. 9–10).

1 (6:6–8) Contentment—Godliness—Wealth: the secret to contentment is godliness. “Contentment” (autarkeias) means to be completely sufficient, to need absolutely nothing. It means to be fulfilled, satisfied, and complete. Imagine a person who feels wholly complete and sufficient, who lacks absolutely nothing. This is what Scripture means by contentment. What makes a person content? What brings such contentment to the human soul? Scripture pulls no punches; it unequivocally states that it is godliness. Godliness alone can make a person content. Godliness alone can take a person and make him …

• fulfilled

• satisfied

• complete

• sufficient

Godliness alone can give man the sense that he lacks absolutely nothing. Imagine being so contented—so fulfilled, so satisfied, so completed, so sufficient—that you sense no lack. You just sense no need whatsoever within your innermost being and soul. This is exactly what godliness does for the human soul. This is the reason Scripture declares that godliness with contentment is great gain. No greater gain could ever come to a person than contentment.

Note that Scripture wants us to think about the three stages of life for a moment:

⇒ there is the stage of birth. At birth we brought nothing into this world. When we entered the world, we came with only two things: our bodies and life. Beyond these we were stark naked. We had nothing else.

⇒ There is the stage of death. Note that the fact of death is an absolute certainty. At death, we carry nothing—absolutely nothing—out of this world. We leave this world just as we entered it, with nothing.

⇒ There is the stage that is between birth and death—the stage of life. Life is entirely different from birth and death. There are some things that we need during life: necessities that we must have to sustain life. We need food, clothing, and shelter. The Greek word for raiment literally means covering: it is applicable both to clothing and shelter. In order to live and complete our lives upon earth, we need food, clothing, and shelter. But note: we need nothing else. We can live and sustain life if we have these things. Therefore, a person is to be content with these. Remember the point of these verses: the secret of contentment is godliness. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

The point is driven home by a series of statements taken from Matthew Henry:

If a man [has] … enough to carry him through [this world], he needs desire no more, his godliness … will be his great gain.

Godliness is itself great gain; it is profitable to all things.

Wherever there is true godliness, there will be contentment.

The highest pitch of contentment [is] godliness [which makes the] happiest people in this world

Christian contentment … is all the wealth in the world.

He that is godly is sure to be happy in another world.

Godliness with contentment, this is the way to gain.

A Christian’s gain is great: it is not like the little gain of worldlings, who are so fond of a little worldly advantage.

All truly godly people have learned with Paul: ‘I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Ph. 4:11).1

A striking point is made by William Barclay in his Daily Study Bible.2

It is not that Christianity pleads for poverty. There is no special virtue in being poor, and no happiness in having a constant struggle to make ends meet. But Christianity does plead for two things.

1. “It pleads for the realization that it is never in the power of things to bring happiness.”

2. “It pleads for the concentration upon the things which are permanent, the things that a man can take with him when in the end he dies.”

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Ph. 4:11).

“But godliness with contentment is great gain … and having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Ti. 6:6, 8).

“Let your conversation [behavior] be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (He. 13:5).

“Better is little with the fear of the LORD, than great treasure and trouble therewith” (Pr. 15:16).

2 (6:9–10) Wealth—Riches—Money, Love of: the secret to contentment is not money. This is shocking, for the rich cling and hoard their money, and the rest of mankind is forever seeking to get more and more money. But God is clear about the matter: money and wealth do not bring contentment. There are four reasons why this is true.

1. Money tempts and enslaves. How can money tempt and enslave? The answer is clearly seen. A person with money …

• can buy anything he wants when he wants

• can go wherever he wants when he wants

• can do just about anything he wants when he wants

This is power within the world—what we might call worldly power. A person who has the power to buy anything, go anywhere, and do whatever he wants has worldly power.

The point is this: a person who has such power—the money to buy anything, go anywhere, and do anything—is always tempted. He is tempted to live selfishly and to hoard what he has. He is always tempted …

• to keep on buying and buying

• to keep on going and going

• to keep on doing and doing

The rich are far more tempted to indulge the flesh and to live extravagantly—far more tempted to live selfishly and to control and dominate people through the power of their wealth.

The rich and they who would be rich are never free from the bombardment of temptation. Therefore, the rich person never has peace. He never possesses contentment, not inward completeness and satisfaction. He never feels completely fulfilled and sufficient. This is the first reason money does not bring contentment. Money brings a bombardment of temptation, and it ensnares men in sin.

2. Money can cause many foolish and hurtful lusts. Think how foolish and hurtful some of these things are.

⇒ How foolish are closets full of clothing: a person can wear only one set of clothing at a time and there are only so many different kinds of clothing. How foolish is it to have closets full of clothing that we can seldom wear?

⇒ How foolish is extravagance in clothes? Labels on clothes? An expensive store and an inexpensive chain store will carry the very same clothing made by the same manufacturer. Is it wise or foolish to buy the expensive clothing because of a small label with a different name?

⇒ How foolish is extravagance in eating? Eating and eating and eating—training our bodies to crave and crave more and more food. Is it foolish or wise to damage the body?

⇒ How foolish is indulgence in smoking? Walking around like a smoke stack damaging our bodies.

⇒ How foolish and hurtful is selling and giving our bodies over to intoxicating drink, drugs, immorality, and greed?

⇒ How foolish and hurtful is it to …

• crave and crave?

• lust and lust?

• hoard and hoard?

• indulge and indulge?

• secure and secure?

• possess and possess?

How foolish and hurtful is it to feed our desires and lusts with the things, possessions, and niceties of this world when millions upon millions are hopeless and helpless and going to bed hungry, cold, and sick—all dying from lack of food, clothing, shelter, and disease? And, most tragic of all—dying without Christ and without any hope of living eternally with God. As stated, money can cause many foolish and hurtful lusts.

3. Money drowns men in destruction and perdition. The word drown (buthizo) is a descriptive picture of wealth being “a personal monster, which plunges its victims into an ocean of complete destruction.”3 The idea is this: the person who falls into the foolish and hurtful lusts of this world will be utterly destroyed and ruined, both in body and soul. And the destruction and ruin will be for eternity.4

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Ph. 3:18–19).

“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Th. 5:3).

“And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Th. 1:7–9).

“But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition” (1 Ti. 6:9).

“But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (He. 10:39).

4. Money—that is, the love of money—is the root of all evil. Note the three reasons why:

⇒ The love of money causes people to covet, and covetousness is idolatry.

⇒ The love of money causes people to wander away from the faith. It causes people to go after the lusts of this world.

⇒ The love of money causes people to pierce themselves through with many sorrows. The things, possessions, and lusts of this world do not satisfy nor fulfill a person’s heart and life. Money cannot bring contentment to a person. The love of money only consumes and eats a person with grief.5 It pierces the heart with a void—the void of emptiness and worry, anxiety, and insecurity. Money cannot buy love, health, and deliverance from death. Money cannot buy God; it cannot buy assurance, not the assurance and confidence of living forever.

The point is this: a person craves the necessities of life; his very nature craves them. However, once man has the necessities of life, he discovers that he still craves for more. The necessities do not satisfy his inner craving and emptiness—his void, hunger, and thirst—for something more. Therefore, man seeks to satisfy his craving by getting more and more food, clothing and everything else he desires. He eats and eats, buys and buys, and goes after more and more comfort, ease, pleasure, wealth, money, and everything else he wants. But what man overlooks is this: the craving within his heart—the void, the hunger, the thirst—is not for more material possessions. It is for spiritual satisfaction, the filling up of another part of his being. His craving is for godliness. Therefore, once he has food and raiment, he has satisfied his physical craving. Enough food and raiment for today brings contentment today—but only physical contentment. What he needs after that is spiritual food, the satisfaction of his spiritual hunger. Man’s contentment comes from having both his need for physical and spiritual food met. One without the other leaves him with some emptiness, some incompletion (Col. 2:8–9). True contentment comes only from godliness.

Thought 1. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” William Barclay points out that the great classical thinkers recognized this truth.

⇒ The great thinker Democritus said, “Love of money is the metropolis of all evils.”

⇒ Seneca refers to “the desire for that which does not belong to us, from which every evil of the mind springs.”

⇒ Phocylides says that “the love of money is the mother of all evils.”

⇒ Philo refers to the “love of money which is the starting-place of the greatest transgressions of the Law.”

⇒ Athenaeus quotes another thinker: “The belly’s pleasure is the beginning and root of all evil.”

William Barclay himself makes an excellent point that is worthy of note:

Money in itself is neither good nor bad; it is simply dangerous in that the love of it may become bad. With money a man can do much good; and with money he can do much evil. With money a man can selfishly serve his own desires; and with money he can generously answer to the cry of his neighbour’s need. With money a man can buy his way to the forbidden things and facilitate the path of wrong-doing; and with money he can make it easier for someone else to live as God meant him to live. Money is not an evil, but it is a great responsibility.6